Author: chuma

I think I need to modify things so I don’t have to enter a title every time I post. They’re getting kind of tedious.

In case you weren’t convinced there was something wrong with Michael Jackson, this should change your mind..

Hrm… microwaves, eh? I used to nuke CDs and CD-Rs in microwaves. Pretty patterns, and arcing metal. Bad smell though.

Yesterday I finally got a copy of Defying Gravity. I gotta sit down and read it. I flipped through it and it looks very cool.

Seen quite a few movies in the past week: The Ring and 8 Mile in theatres, and Mulholland Drive on DVD.

The Ring was scary as all hell, and I spent most of it with my head buried in Sandy’s shoulder: she likes scary movies, I don’t. The plot was very very good though.

I enjoyed 8 Mile a lot. As Sandy pointed out to me afterwards, it didn’t seem as autobiographical as the press would make you think. It was still a good story, and I enjoyed the hiphop. Eminem also did a pretty damn good job acting (or is that just how he is all the time?)

Mullholland drive is bar-none the most messed up movie I’ve ever seen. I really don’t get it, and I don’t think I’m supposed to get it. It was quite a ride though.

Tomorrow I’m seeing Bowling for Columbine tomorrow. Should be great. Apparently, it’s already on track to be the most successful documentary of all time.

This is neat. So neat, I made a Newton version.

Thu Oct 31 08:56:03 EST 2002
Migrated to larger RAID subsystem (from 80GB to 800GB).

Oh Stan, you wacky Sun guy you. There’s only 646GB free on that array, you sure that’s enough? Happy Hallowe’en.

Jon, what happened to your site?

WALT was an experimental technology developed between Apple and BellSouth to create a telecommunications device that utilized Newton technologies. Now that one has been found, however, it appears that WALT is more likely a Mac in sheep’s clothing. That’s too bad for those who bid on it thinking that it was a Newton.

In other news, the scooter is going into storage this weekend. It’s getting damn cold outside, you know.

I can’t believe that someone has finally done it after all these years, but below is a screenshot of my Newton MessagePad 2100 emulating a Palm Pro (PalmOS 2.0 ROM):

The emulator is still unreleased pending bugfixes, adding features like serial/IR support and working Graffiti, and clearing up some licencing issues. But it exists. And it does work. It’s amazing to see actually working. This is all the result of the work of Brian Parker, up-and-coming Newton developer. My hat is off to you, Brian (and thanks for sneaking me a copy so I could confirm it).

This I cannot believe. Please, someone give the US Patent Office a good swift smack with the clue-by-four. Pleeeease.

Friday we’re going to the Erin Smith Band show in Toronto! Are you?

ThinkGeek has done some remodelling. I still want a Linux fish for the back of the scooter, and a C.H.I.M.P. for my monitor.

Okay, so that was a lame title. Whatever, I’m too tired to think of a good one now.

My entire weekend was filled with taking my motorcycle safety course with the CMA. It’s a pretty intense 3-day affair (Friday evening, and all day Sat & Sun). I pretty much went from knowing nothing about driving a real motorcycle (since my scooter has a sidecar, it really doesn’t count) Saturday morning to doing emergency stops and swerves at 50kph today. And I passed my test, so in a month I’ll be able to upgrade my licence to an M2, one step closer to never taking another driving test ever again. Sigh, graduated licencing… and only another week or two of scooter-riding before it has to be put away.

Oh yeah, and I convocated, and it was great, but I’m too lazy to post photos yet, especially because I don’t have any good ones. My mom does, bug she uses real film. Ugh, how primitive 🙂

One more thing had to get fixed on the scooter: the nut that holds the clutch in fell off. That’s not a good thing, BTW. Scared the hell out of me when it happened: I suddenly lost all power and horrible grinding noises came out of it. It didn’t take long to get fixed, at least.
Letting it warm up properly is important as well, as the automatic choke seems to be pretty slow. I wonder if I can adjust it… need to find a service manual.

PHP really is a joy to work in. Ahh, PHP. Work is much nicer now that I actually get to write code, and I know what the project has to do.

The scooter is now fully licenced, safety certified, and plated. It got new rear shocks, a new rear tire, and a tune-up at the shop. Runs much smoother now. It seems like the belt slips at low speeds though. At least with the plates, I don’t have to live in fear of the Guelph police when I drive it around. Just under two weeks until I take my safety course, after which I’ll have my M2 licence, and then I can get my full M sometime in… 2004? Damn graduated licensing.

I’m convocating from University tomorrow. It doesn’t seem like a really big deal. I’ll finally have my Bachelor of Computing though. After four years. Wow, I guess it is a big deal. It seems like I accomplished more in high school… although high school was six years long.